professor: Amy C. Kimme Hea

office hours: T 1:45-3:15 & by appointment

office location: M LNG 476

course description required materials course policies assignments grading

course description

English 307 introduces you to a variety of business writing situations. The approach in this course is a decidedly rhetorical one. That is, in each course project, you will consider the purposes, audiences, and your role(s) as author. The course emphasizes the changing business writing environment. From the variety of majors represented in this course to the inclusion of more electronic media in workplace environments, business writing as a category is marked by diversity. Keeping in mind this diversity, you will learn to:

Understand the role(s) of business writers through contextual research and analysis.

Conduct field, electronic, and library research to develop course projects.

Collaborate with your colleagues in self-directed project teams.

Work with clients to complete writing projects for the course.

Participate in the development of a range of written genres including professional emails, print-based and electronic résumés and job materials, proposals, reports, and other written materials.

Use technology to plan, develop, and support individual and peer projects.

course description required materialscourse policies assignments grading top

required materials

A fundamental assumption of this course is that an increasing amount of workplace writing will take place online--not merely as documents word processed then printed out, but in email, realtime remote discussion, and other forms. In order to learn to communicate more effectively online, much of your work in this course will rely on email, listserv, the WWW, and other electronic media.

In fact, the bulk of your course materials such as syllabus, schedule, and project guides will be made available to you through this course web site.

Required Purchase:
One zip disk to use in our class. If you don't have a zip drive at home, you can email documents back and forth to yourself. The client project, however, generally requires storage space for images and other files not small enough to store on floppy disks.

Suggested Purchase:
The Business Writer's Companion, 3rd spiral edition
by Charles T. Brusaw, Walter E. Oliu, and Gerald J. Alred
ISBN: 0312259778
Available at the ASUA Bookstore in the Student Union.

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course policies

 technology requirements

In our class, you should expect to engage in quite a bit of computer work this semester. The main form of communication as well as planning and production of documents will rely on the computer. Thus, in order to participate fully in the course, you should be able to use the technologies listed below.

Microsoft Office Applications, particularly Word, PowerPoint, and Publisher.

Netscape Communicator or Internet Explorer.

Email program which allows you to send and receive email attachments during computer class sessions.

technology responsibilities

Because the exchange of information and materials in this class will be largely electronic, familiarity with certain technologies is crucial for participation and success in the course. Thus, you should be able to attend to the responsibilities in the list below. If you need any assistance now or at any point during the semester, please do not hesitate to ask me.

Have access to a University of Arizona menu account (sometimes called a u.dot) for communication with me, your peers, and clients, and for storage space of web documents.

Become proficient sending and receiving email attachments through your University of Arizona account.

Read all course update messages sent to our class listserv.

Check the course calendar before the beginning of each class.

Become more proficient with unfamiliar computer technologies and applications.

Maintain back-up copies of all assignments via disks and/or email attachments to yourself.

collaborative work

Collaborative work is a major element of our course. In fact, most projects in our course will require you to act as either co-developer and/or co-author. You and your team members are responsible for updating one another and me about assignment progress. In addition, you are responsible for negotiating together all aspects of your work including planning, drafting, revising, file managing, and scheduling of tasks. You will be asked to evaluate your own and your peers' participation in collaborative projects, and thus, you should maintain detailed daily notes and records about your work.


attendance & punctuality

Attendance is required at all scheduled meetings: class meetings, student-professor conferences, client meetings, and peer meetings. Keep in mind that since you will working collaboratively with peer and community partners, you also will be required to attend any scheduled out-of-class meetings with your team and client to complete course assignments.

Two absences may result in your final grade being lowered by as much as a letter grade. More than two absences can result in a failing grade for the course.

Please note that no distinction is made in this course between excused or unexcused absences.

Being excessively or regularly late for class and team meetings also can be counted as an absence.

late & incomplete work

If you must miss a scheduled class meeting, you are not excused from the work due at or accomplished during that class session. You should make arrangements to turn in your work in advance of your absence or before 6 pm on that same day.

If a serious and unavoidable problem arises, however, you should contact me prior to the deadline to determine whether or not an extension for the work will or will not be granted. An extension of a deadline is a privilege not a right, and therefore, is based upon my judgment of what is reasonable and fair.

A grade of an "I" for incomplete will only be assigned in extreme cases and where a majority of the work for the course has already been completed.


academic integrity

Projects in this course focus on your own experiences as a professional and your collaborations with peers and community organizations. Taking credit for the work of others or cheating in any form will not be tolerated.

Because a variety of research methods will be used in our course and your crediting of those sources is vital, we will discuss the preferred citation method used to produce most professional writing documents, which is APA. If you have any questions about citing sources, collaborating with your peers, or working with clients in the community, please feel free to contact me.


disabilities accommodations

Students with disabilities who require reasonable accommodations are encouraged to contact me via email or during my office hours.

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assignments

You will complete a series of interrelated projects for this course as well as a number of homework assignments, workshops, and other activities. Your participation in all course activities is taken seriously and is reflected in the course participation portion of your grade for the course.

Memo of Introduction 5% (individual)

Unit 1: Job Analysis Materials 15% (individual)

Unit 2: Client Research & Proposal 25% (collaborative)

Unit 3: Client Deliverable Production & Product 25% (collaborative)

Unit 4: Reflective Report & Evaluations 10% (individual)

Unit 5: Job Materials Portfolio 20% (individual)

Because genres will vary widely across projects, formatting guidelines will be given for each of the major assignments.

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grading

You must complete all the larger projects and their components to pass the course.

For each project you must submit multiple components (including preliminary assignments, research notes, drafts, etc.). For the specifics of each unit, follow the links provided in the above assignments section.

All assignments will be graded on the standard letter-grade scale:

A=100-90

B=89-80

C=79-70

D=69-60

F=59 or below

 

 

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course description required materialscourse policies assignments grading top

page last updated: 1.9.03